home Credit Emerson's principles for increasing labor productivity. American engineer and management consultant Garrington Emerson

Emerson's principles for increasing labor productivity. American engineer and management consultant Garrington Emerson

Garrington Emerson

"Twelve Principles of Productivity"

— Brief summary of the book

“His principles are so defined, true and unshakable that they can be taken as a standard. With their help, any production, any industrial enterprise, any banking operation can be examined. The success of these enterprises is determined and measured by the degree to which their organization deviates from the twelve principles of productivity.” ("Financial Times")

Chapter I. Organization and principles - basic premises

Correct principles in the hands of mediocre people are stronger than the unsystematic and random attempts of a genius.

Beginning in 1850, Louis Napoleon was a leading figure in European politics for twenty years. England maintained friendship with him. Italy cried out to him for release. Türkiye asked for his protection, Russia was humiliated by him, Austria sought his alliance. But in the small kingdom of Prussia, equal in size to our state of Colorado, there were two people - the statesman Bismarck and the military organizer Moltke, who entered into an alliance with each other in order to make their king the hegemon of Europe. King William ascended to the Prussian throne in 1861. He was a sixty-four-year-old man, imbued with all the moldy traditions of the past, but he had unlimited confidence in his two outstanding advisers.

Prussia was a small, poor, secondary kingdom. It owned only about a quarter of the German (ie German and Austrian) land and the German population. The balance of forces in Germany did not in any way indicate that Prussia should play a leading role. Outside of Germany, Prussia was decidedly not worth a penny.

To fulfill the dream of two royal advisers, there was only one possible path. This required the following:

1. A distinct plan, or ideal, sample.

2. An organization capable in its form of achieving ideals (goals) and consolidating what has been achieved through the application of certain principles.

3. Availability of people, materials, machines, funds and methods that enable the organization to apply the principles by which goals are achieved and gains are sustained.

4. Competent and knowledgeable leaders who would be able to make the organization and equipment achieve its goals or ideals and consolidate the achievements. Consciously or unconsciously, in this entire matter, the organizers of the victory followed nature itself.

Two leaders, whose ideal or goal was a powerful German Empire with the Prussian state or the Prussian king at its head, set about creating two corresponding organizations: a military organization and a diplomatic organization; They took up the equipment of these organizations, they began to cultivate in them the strength that was necessary to achieve their goal. First, diplomatic intrigue was set in motion, which led each enemy individually to a dead end, and then the army, which crushed this enemy. Diplomacy has nothing to do with us here. In order to cause all the necessary clashes just at the most convenient moment, in order to adjust all the wars to a pleasant and convenient spring time, great dexterity and great skill were required. But the work that Moltke was given was even more difficult. He could not have the number of people, nor the amount of money, nor the amount of equipment and materials that the enemies had. It was clear to him that for the weakness of material resources, for the inertia of human material, for the obsolescence of weapons, he could reward himself only with those theories and principles that his arrogant opponents remembered too late.

Even before it began, in its very conception, the struggle he undertook was a struggle of productivity against unproductivity. The productivity of the army was created through the application of all twelve principles, through a new concept, a new design of the entire military organization.

European dictator Napoleon III missed the danger. Bismarck and Moltke were already preparing for the next step - replacing the French emperor with the German emperor as the military hegemon of Europe. On July 4, 1870, the Spanish throne was offered to the German Prince Leopold. It is possible that this was also part of Bismarck’s plan, who sought to provoke an armed conflict. Napoleon, as was his habit, stamped his foot—but he stamped it for the last time. On July 19, he declared war on Prussia. They say that Moltke was sleeping when a telegram was brought to him informing him of this; when he was awakened he said, “The campaign plan is in the third drawer of my desk,” and then rolled over and went back to sleep. It is very possible that it was so, for, starting from that second, over a million Germans began to march, eat, fill all their minutes according to a pre-precisely developed plan and schedule. Throughout the German kingdoms and principalities, men were torn away from their families and personal affairs and conscripted into the army; all the railways with all their equipment also joined the banner. No confusion, no hysteria, no unnecessary haste - ohne Hast, ohne Rart (without haste and without delay). Citizens called up for active service found equipment, weapons, uniforms and provisions in place and in perfect order. Since, according to the plans of the French headquarters, mobilization was supposed to end in 19 days, Moltke planned his mobilization for 18: he knew that this would be enough for the theater of military operations to be not on German, but on French territory. In fact, mobilization took the French not 19, but 21 days; thus, they showed a performance of 86%. Moltke’s productivity turned out to be no more, but no less than 100%. In eleven days, Germany mobilized 450 thousand soldiers; On August 2 the first battle was fought; August 6, i.e. 18 days after the start of the war, one of the bloodiest battles of the entire campaign broke out. And on September 2, 45 days after the declaration of war, Napoleon and his army were defeated at Sedan, captured and taken to Germany.

Because Moltke perfected the ancient military organization, because he understood and put into practice all twelve principles of productivity, his wars produced less death and injury than the large American industrial and transport enterprises, which collect about the same income. World history does not know of a single business enterprise that was conducted as well and smoothly as Moltke conducted his wars.

The colossal benefit rendered to the world by Field Marshal Moltke is that he, a military man bound by military traditions, nevertheless organized the army according to a new type, a functional type, the same one that should always be used in economic enterprises. Since the only chance of success in the great game he had started with Bismarck lay in superior productivity, he was forced to understand for himself all the principles on which this productivity was built. In exactly the same way he was forced to carry out the only type of organization that allows their use. And all this was done so unnoticed that even the most insightful of Moltke’s opponents saw nothing in the entire German army except the same helmets, epaulettes, golden cords and rattling sabers that they had long been accustomed to pay attention to; no one understood that, without changing names, without touching ranks and orders, Moltke, for his predatory purposes, destroyed the old predatory organization and replaced it with a new one - functional, creative, productive.

Chapter II. About the type of organization that gives the greatest productivity

Scare a rooster off its perch: it will flap its wings extremely intensely and completely unproductively. On the contrary, an eagle, which can soar at a height for four whole hours without moving its wings at all, acts productively and without stress. True productivity always produces maximum results with minimum effort; tension, on the contrary, produces fairly large results only with abnormally heavy efforts. Piece payment is based on the voltage principle. On the contrary, production rationing and bonus systems are based on the principle of productivity. The difference between these two principles is not only fundamental, but also physiological. Paying by the piece is a return to the level of the savage; rationing of output is a step towards the future, just as trains running according to a predetermined schedule are a step forward compared to traveling on cross-trains and delivering mail by horse-drawn messengers.

Chapter III The first principle is precisely set ideals or goals

Life is farming. You need to find a good piece of fertile land, plow the soil and be patient. The harvest comes later, and the main thing is done when not the slightest results are yet visible. Herbert Kaufman

He who does not know which harbor he is sailing to, has no favorable wind. Seneca

When the railway from St. Petersburg to Moscow was being conceived, engineers came to Emperor Nicholas I and respectfully asked him where to go. The Emperor took a pencil and a ruler, drew a straight line from St. Petersburg to Moscow and said: “Here is the direction for you, gentlemen.” And the road cost 337 thousand dollars. per mile, and there are about 400 miles in it. In Finland, where the construction was supervised by a group of knowledgeable engineers, the railway cost 23 thousand dollars. from a mile.

If every responsible worker in industry clearly formulated his ideals, persistently pursued them in his enterprise, preached them everywhere, instilled them in all his subordinates from top to bottom of the hierarchical ladder, then our manufacturing enterprises would achieve the same high individual and collective productivity that good baseball team.

The manager of an industrial enterprise, unless he lacks common sense, has only two options open to him. Either he sets forth his personal ideals and abandons all principles of productivity that do not agree with him, or, on the contrary, he accepts the productive organization and principles of productivity and develops high ideals corresponding to them.

Chapter IV The second principle is common sense.

The German government deliberately encourages the export of mind, labor, sunlight, air and water. There is nothing in sugar or alcohol except carbon collected from the air, oxygen and hydrogen extracted by the plant from rainwater. Sunlight transforms these elements into beets, and the beds for them are dug and weeded by human hands. Other hands, guided by the mind, turn these beets into sugar and alcohol. Denmark and Holland export oil, which does not deplete the soil. The French import silk from Asia, send it to Lyon weaving factories, and export finished silk fabrics abroad. In addition, they also carry wine, which contains 87% water, 10% alcohol and 0.04% aromatic substances, which give the wine a “bouquet”. Water and alcohol take nothing away from the soil, but the bouquet gives such value to the wine that they pay $10 a pound for it.

America's natural resources are enormous. The person who knew how to find them earlier and plunder them faster than others extracted the maximum income from them. Thus, quantity and tonnage have become a “fad” for us. Our highest goal became to have enough people and machines on hand to inflate the maximum tonnage. Since all these feats were carried out with the help of rifles, steam sawmills, cowboy equipment, improved traps, we began to instinctively overestimate not only the tonnage or absolute figures of production, but also the material equipment, while simultaneously underestimating the organization.

Obeying this instinct, we almost invariably pile up too much equipment and at the same time care too little about organization, building our business not on details and ideas, but on masses and meaningless aggregates. Give an American a ton of dynamite and a granite rock - and he will be happy.

Create a creative creative organization, carefully work on sound ideals, and then firmly implement them; constantly consider each new process not from the immediate, but from a higher point of view, seek special knowledge and competent advice wherever you can find it, maintain high discipline in the organization from top to bottom, build every business on the solid rock of justice - these are the main problems to the immediate resolution of which is called upon by common sense of the highest order. But perhaps it will be even more difficult for him to cope with the disasters of excessive equipment, this direct result of a primitive organization accustomed to working with colossal natural resources.

Chapter V. The third principle is competent consultation.

Persistence is the key to existence. Persistent struggle inevitably leads to success. To achieve results, it is not enough to know what and how to do. Ability must be combined with energy. Without a hammer, nails are useless. Knowledge is complemented by courage. Herbert Kaufman

Competent advice should permeate every enterprise from top to bottom, and if in fact competent advice is not put into practice, then the fault is due to the insufficiency of the organization, the absence of some necessary unit in it. And this still uncreated unit is a special apparatus for increasing productivity.

Chemistry has made more progress in the last ten years than in all previous centuries. Fifty years ago metallurgy was still in its cradle. In the past generation, every hospital was an auxiliary institution for the dead, and the doctor was a constant carrier of infection. In the past generation, sailing ships were the rule and ocean steamers the exception, and as for agriculture, it was almost at the same level as in the days of the Egyptians and Assyrians. And so, since all the gigantic progress that we are witnessing was possible only thanks to competent advice, we believe that the principle of competent advice deserves to be included among the twelve principles of productivity. Let us add that there is no area where competent advice would be more needed than in the area of application of the other eleven principles.

Chapter VI The Fourth Principle - Discipline

With truly rational management, there are almost no special rules of discipline, and even fewer punishments for violating them. But there are standard written instructions, from which each employee knows what his role is in the general enterprise, a precise definition of responsibilities is a quick, accurate and complete accounting of all significant actions and results, there are normalized conditions and standardized operations, and, finally, there is a system of rewards for productivity .

The high ideal of a true worker or employee is necessary for all production organizations. No newcomer should be admitted who is not in every respect a suitable person; Not a single employee can be counted on if there is no fault behind him. Discipline begins even before a candidate is hired. Its rigor should be almost entirely directed towards the exclusion of all inappropriate elements, i.e. all those people who, due to bad character, bad antisocial habits, a tendency to destruction, laziness or other shortcomings, are not suitable for membership in a highly organized labor collective. Every applicant should have heard about the ideals of the organization and the practices of the enterprise even before he is hired. Automatic discipline that deserves to be included among the principles of productivity is nothing more than the subordination of all the other eleven principles and the strictest adherence to them so that these principles in no case become twelve separate, unrelated rules

None of the principles of productivity exists on its own, but each one supports and strengthens all the others, at the same time being supported and strengthened by them. They are connected to each other not like the stones of a vault, where it is enough to remove one for all the others to crumble, but like the stones of an entire building, where if you take out one stone, the rest will be weakened, but will still remain in place.

Chapter VII Fifth principle - Fair treatment of personnel

In practice, true honesty in relationships is almost impossible without combining certain qualities, which, unfortunately, are only very rarely found in the same person. These qualities are benevolence and, most importantly, a sense of justice. However rare such a combination may be, the difficulty here cannot be considered insurmountable, for many people who are promoted to leadership positions with completely different qualities possessed one or another of these necessary elements. Here you can combine the qualities of different people.

When choosing people for a job, external things like education, physical strength, and even past behavior are not so important. The main attention should be paid to internal abilities and inclinations, to character - to what ultimately defines a person.

In the same way, it is neither unfair nor unduly selective to carefully test and examine, and then select the people to whom any work is entrusted.

Like all other principles of productivity, fair treatment of workers and employees must be normalized, it must be in harmony with all the other eleven principles, it must be the special subject of the work of a special, highly qualified staff group, using the help and advice of a number of specialists: characterologists, hygienists, physiologists, psychologists, bacteriologists, safety experts, heating and lighting engineers, economists, salary specialists, accountants, lawyers. In a word, in this work, as in any other, it is necessary to use the entire treasury of relevant human knowledge. Supported by the correct organization of the enterprise, based on ideals and common sense, developing under the influence of the advice of competent specialists, simplifying its tasks by immediately eliminating the unsuitable human element, the principle of justice is carried out by prompt, accurate and complete accounting, by rationing operations, by accurate written instructions, through detailed schedules and in general everything that the twelve principles of productivity require from enterprises.

Chapter VIII Sixth principle - Fast, reliable, complete, accurate and constant accounting.

Having grabbed a red-hot poker, the child immediately receives information, advice, warning, and an account. All this turns out to be quite reliable, durable, immediate and complete. The accounting document in the form of a scar remains for a very long time.

Accounting for all the details, resulting in accounting for the whole, each individual item for each day, all items over a long period of time is one of the principles of productivity. Only he who takes into account all quantities and all prices, who takes into account the efficiency of both, who takes into account in all consumable materials, be it a ton of rails or a pint of oil, only he who takes into account the time expended, the hourly rate and the productivity of labor in each operation, who takes into account the working time and the hourly operating cost of the machines (again for each operation), only he can truly apply all the other principles and achieve high productivity. This kind of accounting is simpler, cheaper and easier than those conventional types of accounting that are used in our large enterprises.

The entire cost accounting system, all the forms related to it, are very simply derived from the basic formula given above. But the conclusion and presentation of this system would lead us too far from our main subject - the need for reliable, fast, complete and constant accounting.

Chapter IX Seventh Principle - Dispatch

Dispatchers give orders to conductors and semaphore operators, thereby regulating the movement of the train from both ends. Even if the conductor controls the train, even if it is actually driven by the driver, all the same, from the moment of departure until the moment of arrival, it is entirely in the hands of the dispatcher.

Practice has shown that it is better to supervise even irregular work than to normalize work without supervising it. Here the situation is the same as in the traffic service, where it is better to dispatch trains, even if not on schedule, than to run them on schedule, but then not dispatch them.

Dispatching, like all other principles, is a branch of management science, a certain part of planning; but although the eye distinguishes it, like a separate pebble of a mosaic, to the touch it should be intangible, like the same pebble. The most beautiful and perfect example of control is the diet of a healthy person, starting from the moment he brings a piece to his mouth and ending with the restoration of destroyed internal tissues. Consciously, we perceive only the pleasant taste of food, and the entire superbly organized further path along which each molecule of the eaten piece reaches its final destination remains invisible to us.

Chapter X Eighth Principle - Standards and Schedules

Primitive piecework and piece payment do not stand up to criticism from a physiological point of view: they stimulate excessive stress, force workers to squeeze out maximum efforts, whereas in reality we need such an improvement in conditions that would give maximum results with, on the contrary, reduced efforts.

The development of rational labor standards for people requires, of course, the most accurate timing of all operations; but, in addition, it requires all the skill of an administrator developing a plan, all the knowledge of a physicist, anthropologist, physiologist, psychologist. It requires limitless knowledge, guided, directed and animated by faith, reliable and compassion for man.

In the present, we have already partially resolved, and in the future, of course, we must completely resolve the main task of humanity - the task of constantly increasing results while steadily reducing the effort expended.

Chapter XI The Ninth Principle - Normalization of Conditions

The ideal of normalizing conditions is not a utopian ideal, but a directly practical one; Without an ideal, selection and selection of what is needed is impossible. When creating a statue, the Greek sculptor copied a hand from one model, a leg from another, a torso from a third, a head from a fourth, and the features of these different people merged into a single ideal, but in the artist’s head this ideal had to precede the work, otherwise he could not choose models.

It is much easier to prove the benefits of normalizing conditions than to prove its beauty. This proof is especially easy when applied to small, immediate improvements, since illustrative examples can almost always be found for such improvements.

What results are we trying to achieve in individual life, in factory production, in national development? Are we spending too much time, are we wasting too much money, are we wasting our energy? Do we normalize conditions so that time is not wasted, so that money is not thrown out the window, so that efforts are not wasted?

Chapter XII Tenth Principle - Rationing of Operations

The systematic plan of the plant's work resembles a flattened tree in its graphic representation. Each leaf, i.e. each individual operation must be in its intended place; each branch must have a certain intended length, connecting in the proper place with a large branch, and these large branches must in turn adjoin the main trunk at certain strictly calculated intervals. Realizing the power inherent in the grain, realizing the natural ideal of the tree, the trunk grows upward and to the sides; but there is also a reverse flow - a flow of sunlight and carbon dioxide, captured by the leaves and flowing towards the center down to the very roots. Factory operations must proceed towards the finished product, but there must also be a work plan starting from the estimated output and ascending from it to individual operations, i.e. moving in exactly the opposite direction.

It's one thing to build a battleship, picking up and assembling parts as they come from factories, it will be a random system. It’s another thing to first develop a plan, assign certain deadlines, certain sizes, certain places, certain production to all the parts, and then gradually complete and assemble all these parts with the precision and accuracy of a clock. There is the same difference here as between the flow of sand through a random, non-normalized hole and the accuracy of a chronometer. Valuable results are not achieved by chance.

The increase in the effectiveness of the combat operations of our fleet, carried out over the past five years, seems to be the largest, and perhaps the most important, of all our successes. Remember how much time and money it cost humanity to create steam turbines and fast trains, and then realize that our fleet has increased its combat effectiveness sixteen times in five years. It goes without saying that such a huge increase in productivity is conceivable only on the basis of the consistent application of all its principles, all twelve without a single exception. Here there are ideals, and common sense, and competent advice, and discipline, and justice, and accurate, quick accounting, and schedules (firing schedule at 10,000 yards), and dispatch (10-12 heavy shells per minute), and normalization of conditions , and the rationing of operations (supported by persistent and constant collective training), and the most precise written instructions indicating how to save one-fifth of a second, and, finally, the most attractive - the reward of productivity, crowning the success achieved with both monetary reward and honor. And when the same principles are applied not only to effective artillery fire, but also to the most prosaic, but at the same time the most important operations, such as heating or loading a ship with coal (the record average loading rate for a circumnavigation of the world has increased on some ships from 30 to 360 t/hour); when the same principles are applied to the routine repair of ship's machinery, carried out by the ship itself, without going to the docks, then it becomes clear that high productivity does not require either great expense or great loss of time, but requires only proper installation and organization.

Planning is beneficial, as is the application of all principles of productivity in general. But the rationing of operations is the principle that calls out louder than all others to the individuality of man, the worker. In relation to workers, ideals are passive, common sense is passive, planning is passive in all its stages, but good standardized execution gives the worker personal joy, gives him all the richness of the active manifestation of personal forces.

Let us not hesitate because we are not immediately able to standardize every new operation. It is impossible to standardize all messenger trips, to standardize all naval battles. But it is possible to inspire both the messenger and the admiral that in any case and under all conditions everyone should do everything he can; It is possible to train them, give them the necessary knowledge, help, reward them for productivity. And if we do this not only with the messenger and the admiral, but with all the other workers, then, even though we could not teach and retrain people for every random operation, we can still be absolutely sure that all unnecessary losses of time will be eliminated and that energy will never be wasted.

Chapter XIII The Eleventh Principle - Written Standard Instructions.

Productivity in all human affairs occurs not when we tread water on the shore, but when we throw ourselves into the water and persistently move towards the opposite shore.

Above, I already spoke about the enormous successes of the American fleet, created by the rationing of artillery fire. All the successes of the fleet are recorded in a thick book of instructions and improvement projects. This book contains all the highest modern artillery techniques, presented in the form of solid standard written instructions; but these instructions are constantly bombarded with a whole hail of new proposals, and all proposals, no matter how absurd they sometimes may be, are carefully taken into account, processed and published for the attention of all interested persons.

In order for a production or any other enterprise to really move forward, it is necessary not only to take into account all successes, but also to carefully and systematically consolidate them in writing. At every factory, in every institution, there are many common techniques that have become part of constant practice, taking root more and more deeply. This is a customary, unwritten law, understood and interpreted by all concerned in a completely arbitrary manner. Quite often, all traditions are concentrated in the head of some old employee, who passes them on to newcomers.

Work on the application of all the already stated ten principles of productivity can and must be enshrined in writing, reduced to solid standard instructions so that each employee of the enterprise understands the entire organization as a whole and his place in it. But in many factories there are no written instructions, except for minor, auxiliary “internal regulations”, stated in an unacceptably rude form and always ending in a threat of calculation.

Chapter XIV The Twelfth Principle - Reward for Performance

For many years, humanity has been searching for an answer to the question: what is the difference between the living and the dead? Anything that responds to performance rewards is alive; everything that does not respond to such reward is dead, inanimate.

This is the significant difference between the movement of a drop of water, which, obeying the law of gravity, descends from a mountain peak all the way to the sea, and the growth of a pine tree, stretching upward with all its might to get to the sunlight necessary for life. Darwin proved that life is preserved and develops through the survival of the fittest, the most productive and through natural selection, i.e., with the help of sexual selection, the individual characteristics of the fittest, most productive, surviving individuals are transmitted to the offspring. Nature is accused of caring only for the species and not for the individual; but in fact it forms both individuals and species in a completely impartial manner, offering and actually giving to all a high reward for productivity. Every individual, every race is constantly facing death and destruction, but the reward for productivity constantly takes us away from the danger zone. Destroy the incentive to reward productivity and both individual and species life will cease forever on earth.

We can only laugh at those who, in their ignorance, try to eliminate the principle of reward for productivity, to banish it from human affairs. And yet man - the same man who achieved his humanity only thanks to this principle, only thanks to the high reward for productivity - yet this man more than once turned his back on the light and went back into the darkness, more than once forgot the principle by which he was created, more than once he forgot that this principle is eternal and promises even higher rewards ahead. He more than once tried to keep what he received for himself alone, tried to ensure this property of his, not allowing other people to see it. At all times, priests and clergymen, who were given the opportunity to read a few pages in the open book of nature, immediately made this knowledge secret and tried to lock the precious book.

In order to give workers fair compensation for productivity, accurate labor equivalents must be established in advance. How high the labor equivalent, the unit of labor, will be paid is not so important: the principle is important. Employers and workers can agree on a minimum wage for a maximum working day, there is no need to object to this; but in any case, the daily wage must correspond to a completely definite and carefully calculated equivalent of labor.

The piecework system is based on a false and harmful principle and is therefore a too primitive and unsatisfactory tool. The time required for any given operation varies with the general conditions of production, and with the condition of the machines, and with the quality of the tools, and with the hardness of the material being processed, and with the number of ordered pieces of the product, and, finally, with the experience, strength and skill of the performers.

The piece-wage system could only be tolerated to a certain extent if the rates were based on carefully, accurately and impartially calculated standards for the duration of operations, if the worker had a guaranteed hourly wage in case of shortage of work.

The profit-sharing system also does not correspond to the principle of rewarding performance. Production costs are made up of as many as 18 items, and the worker has a direct impact on only one of them, namely: the duration and quality of work. As for the remaining 17 articles, the administration is partly responsible for them, but partly they are not amenable to the influence of either the administration, much less the workers; such is, for example, the price of materials. Meanwhile, it is these items that account for the largest share of the cost.

Fairness requires a direct relationship between performance rewards and performance quality. Since profit is mainly determined by a number of reasons independent of the worker, a system in which every worker, good or bad, receives at the end of the year an increase from this profit independent of him, deducted in proportion to his salary, such a system is absurd, although indicates the generosity of the employer.

The ideals of this very narrow and specialized application of the principle of reward for performance are thus stated as follows:

1. Guaranteed hourly pay.

2. Minimum productivity, failure to achieve which means that the worker is not suitable for this job and that he must either be trained or transferred to another place.

3. Progressive performance bonus, starting at such a low level that not receiving the bonus is inexcusable.

4. A standard of overall performance established on the basis of detailed and thorough research, including time and motion studies.

5. For each operation there is a certain norm of duration, a norm that creates a joyful upsurge, i.e. standing in the middle between overwhelming slowness and too tedious speed.

6. For each operation, duration standards should vary depending on the machines, conditions and personality of the performer; thus, schedules must be individualized.

7. Determination of the average productivity of each individual worker for all operations performed by him over a long period.

8. Constant periodic review of standards and prices, adapting them to changing conditions. This requirement is important and necessary. If changing conditions require workers to improve their skills or increase their efforts, then wages must also be increased. Norms for the duration of operations have nothing to do with rates. They need to be reviewed and changed not in order to influence wages one way or another, but so that they constantly, under all changing conditions, remain accurate. For a pedestrian there will be one performance standard, for a cyclist another, and for a motorist a third. It's unavoidable.

9. The worker must be able to complete the operation not at an exact standard time, but a little earlier or a little later, within a certain standard zone. If the normal duration does not seem right to him, then he should be able to limit himself to an hourly wage and give low productivity. Such behavior will greatly increase the cost of production, and the employer will have to, in his own interests, normalize the physical or mental working conditions in order to help the worker produce the full standard. Productivity determines 9 of the 18 elements of cost (we mean the quantitative and qualitative productivity of materials, labor and fixed overhead). Practice has shown that rewards for productivity should be calculated not only by speed of work, but also by all other types of productivity. The remuneration system is so flexible that it is equally convenient to apply it to individual operations that take only a few minutes, to the entire work of an individual over a long period of time, and to the entire work of a workshop or even a factory.

Rewarding performance goes beyond a monetary bonus. Monetary reward is only one of countless manifestations of the principle.

To produce maximum results and be accompanied by a healthy joyful uplift, all human work requires three conditions.

1. Work should be enjoyable; it should not be hard labor, but a game. A person must work like a boy learns to ride a bicycle or skate, like a girl learns to dance, like an old man learns to play golf, like a motorist picks up speed.

2. Any work should have a definite end in mind, it should not be an indefinite, endless burden, but require such and such results in such and such a period. We cannot bear either an endless day or an endless night; both suppress and irritate us, like invariably good weather, an invariably calm sea. A person needs constant changes, he needs rain and a hurricane, but only so that at the end of the transition a camp, a fire and dinner await him. It is very difficult for an untrained person to hold his breath for a whole minute, but as soon as he sets a certain goal for himself, pulls himself together,” and from the very first lesson he learns not to breathe for one and a half, two, three and even four minutes. He, as athletes say, acquires “class.”

3. “Class” is the last thing needed for easy, graceful and enjoyable work. Compare an experienced speed skater with a beginner; compare the movements of a good horseman or cyclist, tensing perhaps no more than one muscle at a time, with the desperate efforts of a beginner. Finally, compare the ease of a professional juggler with the clumsiness of an amateur.

Chapter XV Application of Productivity Principles to the Accounting and Elimination of Wastes

There have always been people who are successful. Alexander the Great, Caesar, Atila, Genghis Khan, Charlemagne, Timur, Hideyoshi, Napoleon - all of them are great conquerors and creators of kingdoms. All these people, although unconsciously, although partially, still used some principles of productivity. But all the works of these people, with the possible exception of Hideyoshi, are characterized by colossal destruction and colossal losses. Genghis Khan alone is credited with the ruin and death of 6 million human beings.

But all of them, even being the greatest destroyers, had certain ideals, and sometimes even very high ideals. They put these ideals into practice, but eliminating waste was not their goal.

The principles of productivity are inspired precisely by the ideal of eliminating waste - all waste in general, waste that ultimately leads to waste.

It is very possible that the elimination of all losses is a utopian ideal that is not feasible on our planet. But any reduction in these losses already gives us a huge reward.

The ideal of the twelve principles of productivity is the elimination of waste, and it is for this purpose that they are formulated. In what particular business to eliminate losses is not of fundamental importance.

However, if it is possible to divide all systems and methods into several: ten, twelve, fifteen groups, if it is possible to show that all of them, with all their possible options, are determined by only a few principles, then a conscious worker can, based on these principles, find out which it is precisely the systems and devices that are convenient for him, for example, for achieving certain ideals, or which of them will give him truly accurate, reliable and complete accounting.

It is always not difficult to check the productivity of a factory or plant, because unproductivity is caused by only two reasons: either the principles of productivity are unknown to the administration, or it neglects them. If performance principles are not applied, then high performance is not possible; in the same way, it is impossible in the case when they are only recognized theoretically, but not verified in practice. One of the greatest benefits of performance principles is that they give us a powerful tool for testing performance.

If we have examined a factory and seen that it is operating unproductively, then first of all we should accurately establish the actual state of affairs. Next, it is necessary to develop standards, and then insist on the strict application of the principles, and this, firstly, in order to test the administration, and secondly, in order to manage the enterprise: we know with complete certainty that if these principles are applied courageously and a knowledgeable person, then the established norms will inevitably receive full implementation. Of course, there are no absolute and final norms in the world. Initial rates are always very low and easily achievable.

Franklin developed for himself thirteen principles of small everyday virtue. These principles are: restraint, silence, order, determination, frugality, activity, frankness, justice, moderation, cleanliness, calm, chastity and modesty. For each week he took one of these virtues for himself, and throughout the week he persistently practiced it in order to make it a habit. Every three months he devoted one full week to all the virtues, so that in total there were four weeks a year for each of them. This is how he maintained himself for many years in a row. And the absurd, eccentric young Franklin, who quarreled with his wife because she served him milk not in a clay mug, but in a porcelain cup, and, moreover, not with a pewter, but with a silver spoon, this eccentric became a world statesman who deserved respect the British, the admiration of the French and the gratitude of the Americans. In the same way, all the principles of productivity should be applied, and reapplied.

The material was prepared as part of the training program for employees of the Doubletrade company. When reprinting, link to required.

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At the beginning of the 20th century, Garington Emerson formulated 12 principles of productivity and labor organization that can be applied to literally any area and allow achieving maximum results of human activity and the enterprise as a whole. After reading his book, I realized that I reached most of his principles with my own head through mistakes in my life, it seems that if I had read his book earlier, my life would have been more productive. In this post, I'll look at these principles for freelancing.

1. Clearly defined production goals and clearly defined personnel tasks. Think about what the goal of your current project(s) is? It's definitely not about writing code or making money. Do other project participants know about these goals? Are they chasing them? For example, a system administrator thinks that his main goal in the project is to ensure that the server does not crash; all he does is provide redundancy and complete fault tolerance. And the programmer needs help installing gaerman and he doesn’t know how to install it, and the system administrator tells him I’m busy and the main thing for me is that the server doesn’t crash. As a result, the project will not be completed and no one will care whether the server crashed or not.

2. Common sense. Don’t forget to look at the goals and methods with a sober eye; perhaps you will see many things taken to the point of absurdity. For example, you buy a top-end i7, which is three times more expensive than a mid-range i7, is this justified from the point of view of common sense (a 15 percent increase in productivity due to a three-fold increase in the cost of equipment)?

3. Competent consultation. I constantly ask questions in qa habrahabr, support of various projects, forums, and simply hire specialists for consultations, paying approximately 1 to 5 thousand rubles for a consultation. It is often easier, more profitable and faster to ask than to completely figure it out yourself. We must remember that it is not realistic to understand everything on your own.

4. Discipline. Yes, yes, yes, mandatory discipline. When I live in Thailand, every day at the same time at my favorite cafe I work for at least 2 hours. I have made it a rule to respond within 24 hours to any request from my clients, except weekends. You can’t build any kind of business if everyone in your company is prone to disappearing, like most freelancers.

5. Fair treatment of personnel, expressed in the idea “you work better, you live better.” Your employees should not go hungry, not sleep at night, or experience other arbitrariness from you. Common sense, of course, does not negate two sleepless nights per quarter during release, but the rest of the time a person must work off his quota and have adequate time to rest. This is where free food in companies comes from.

6. Fast, reliable, complete, accurate and permanent accounting. Everything needs to be taken into account: changes in the code using git, all financial transactions on the project, communications, contacts, hours spent by programmers, etc.

7. Order and planning of work, dispatching. Create a project management system and plan your work, every little detail. For small things that require 1-2 actions, I use miniplan.ru with email notifications and free sms, for more global things planfix.ru. Each task must have a deadline and a responsible person. You must clearly understand when a project is going off the rails and redistribute resources.

8. Norms and schedules. Standardize the work, for some it’s man hours, for others it’s completed tasks. Take into account time zones, do the minimum workload.

9. Normalization of conditions. Make normal working conditions. For version control use git and github. For the test server, do continus integration. Maintain a knowledge base for the project. Give programmers fast computers and fast test servers. This will reduce their effort to complete the work and increase efficiency. Train your employees.

10. Rationing of operations. Practice usually always helps here; performing certain procedures takes so much time and people must adhere to such deadlines. The Scrum method is well suited for estimating tasks for programmers. Programmers gather and are given cards with numbers from 1 to 10, a list of tasks with small explanations is posted, and for each they vote how many hours it takes to complete, everyone votes secretly and then opens the cards, if everyone agrees approximately, the average score for the task is taken. If it doesn’t agree, then what’s wrong is discussed, details usually come up from experienced programmers about the pitfalls, and after the discussion, a second vote is taken in which it always converges.

11. Written standard instructions. Here, in my opinion, the most important thing is instructions for beginners on how to enter the project and how to work. So the employee came and what next? You should automatically create an account on the corporate forum, share the wiki, open access to Git and the test server, and give the newbie a piece of paper on how to work with it and with whom to consult on the nuances of each system. I recommend writing job descriptions for all permanent and non-permanent employees.

12. Reward for performance. If a person does a job that normally requires 100 hours in 90, he should receive a reward, and he should spend the remaining 10 hours on the next project. Immediately why, following common sense, if a person does the work in 10 hours instead of the standard 100 hours, somewhere you made a mistake. This could be an assessment of the work or some kind of hook for greater automation of the project; in such cases, it is imperative to review the standards. If a person came up with a method for doing a certain job 10 times faster, then of course he should be rewarded and his method applied.

I am ready to reveal more about points that are not completely clear, if there are any. Talk about other people's and your experiences.
Do you follow any of these principles, and your company?

Conclusion

List of used literature

Introduction

Mechanical engineer Garrington Emerson (1853-1931), educated at the Munich Polytechnic (Germany), taught for some time at the University of the American state of Nebraska, then took part in the construction of a large railway, in the design and construction of a number of engineering and mining facilities in the USA, Mexico and Alaska.

His work “The Twelve Principles of Productivity” aroused great interest and attracted the attention of specialists and entrepreneurs not only in the United States, but also in other countries. At that time they wrote: “These principles can be taken as a standard. Using this measure, any production, any industrial enterprise, any operation can be examined; the success of these enterprises is determined and measured by the degree to which their organization deviates from the twelve principles of productivity.”

Effective Organization Theory

The theory of effective organization was an important contribution of the American professional management consultant Harrington Emerson to classical organization theory.

In 1908, Emerson's book “Efficiency as the Basis of Production and Wages” was published, and in 1912, the main work of his life, “The Twelve Principles of Efficiency” was published. True efficiency, Emerson wrote, always produces maximum results with minimum effort. But the condition for this must be a creative organization.

Studying the reasons for the success of small businesses competing with large companies, Emerson came to the conclusion that the basis of competitiveness lies not so much in the economies of large-scale operations, but in the efficiency of the organization of production processes, which requires adequate organizational structures. It is the creation of an effective organizational structure that is a key element in the organization achieving its goals. In search of such a structure, Emerson turns to the experience of the famous Prussian military reformer of the mid-19th century, Field Marshal Moltke, who achieved impressive successes in military battles by introducing a new organizational structure in his army.

What, according to G. Emerson, is an effective organizational structure?

The most effective are linear and staff forms of organization. Nature, the human body and other perfect systems are organized according to a linear or staff principle.

In order for line and staff management units to function effectively, their relationships must be clearly defined. A line manager cannot initiate important activities without the knowledge of staff members.

The headquarters performs the following important functions: selection and training of personnel, correct installation and configuration of equipment, smooth supply of necessary materials and raw materials, monitoring the performance of assigned functions by employees and monitoring the results of the production process.

In addition, an effective organization, according to Emerson, must have the following important characteristics:

Having clearly defined goals. Each leader must clearly formulate the goals of his enterprise, persistently pursue and preach them, and instill them in all his subordinates from top to bottom of the hierarchical ladder.

Standardization of operations, procedures and rules. A set of standard instructions is a codification of the laws and practices of an enterprise. All these laws, customs and practices must be carefully examined by a competent and highly qualified worker and then compiled into a written code.

Standardization of work assignments. Rationing operations is the principle that most loudly appeals to the individuality of the worker. In relation to the worker, ideals are passive, common sense is passive, planning is passive, but good regulation gives him all the richness of the active manifestation of personal strength.

Fast and complete cost accounting. The purpose of accounting is to increase the number and intensity of warnings in order to give us information that we do not receive through external senses. Modern production management requires accurate cost accounting

Dispatching the production process. Dispatching is a branch of management science, a part of planning.

Labor and technological discipline. An organization based on discipline is a strong organization. Applying just one principle of discipline to an organization can dramatically increase its effectiveness.

H. Emerson's 12 Principles of Productivity

The first principle is precisely set goals

The first principle is the need for precisely defined ideals or goals.

The destructive confusion of heterogeneous, competing, mutually neutralizing ideals and aspirations is extremely typical of all American manufacturing enterprises. No less typical for them is the greatest vagueness and uncertainty of the main goal. Even the most responsible managers do not have a clear idea about it.

The uncertainty, uncertainty, and lack of clearly defined goals that are so characteristic of our executives are only a reflection of the uncertainty, uncertainty, and lack of clearly defined goals that plague the leaders themselves. There should be no contradictions between the driver and the dispatcher, between the dispatcher and the schedule, although it is the schedule that determines, with an accuracy of up to a second, all the timing of the movement of the train, covering thousands of miles of distance at colossal speed.

The second principle is common sense.

To create a creative, constructive organization, to carefully develop sound ideals in order to then firmly implement them, to constantly consider each new process not from the immediate, but from a higher point of view, to seek special knowledge and competent advice wherever it can be found, to support the organization high discipline from top to bottom, building every business on the solid rock of justice - these are the main problems, to the immediate resolution of which common sense of the highest order is called upon. But perhaps it will be even more difficult for him to cope with the disasters of excessive equipment, this direct result of a primitive organization accustomed to working with colossal natural resources.

The third principle is competent consultation

The talented chairman of the board of the transcontinental railroad found himself in great difficulty due to a flood of the river, which washed away the track that ran along the side of a hill. Highly qualified engineers advised moving the roadway to the side, which would cost $800,000. The chairman called in a contractor and an Irish road foreman. They hastily went to the scene in the personal carriage of the chairman of the board and wandered there all day, studying the area.

According to their advice and plan, several ditches were dug, which drained the water from the hill. All the work cost $800 and was a complete success.

Truly competent advice can never come from one person. We are surrounded on all sides by the natural laws of the world, laws that are partially understood and summarized in systems, and partially unknown to anyone. We need direct or indirect instructions from every person who knows more about a particular issue than others; We cannot and should not dwell on the information of the last week, last month, year, decade or even century, but we must always use special knowledge that today is in the hands of a few, but tomorrow will spread throughout the world.

The fourth principle is discipline

The most merciless creator of discipline is nature.

With truly rational management, there are almost no special rules of discipline, and even fewer punishments for violating them. But there are standard written instructions, from which each employee knows what his role is in the general business, a precise definition of responsibilities, there is a quick, accurate and complete accounting of all significant actions and results, there are normalized conditions and standardized operations, and, finally, there is a system of remuneration for performance.

In almost all production enterprises, workers and employees are not sufficiently disciplined, the administration does not treat them honestly and fairly, dispatch is so poorly organized that production orders barely get to the shops and workshops, there is no accurate and rational planning almost anywhere, and where there is, there it is very weak, there are no standard written instructions, equipment is not normalized, operations are not normalized, performance reward systems are no good.

A true organizer, be he a saint or a murderer, under no circumstances allows into his organization those people because of whom friction may arise in the future; thereby eliminating nine-tenths the possibility of disorder. A true organizer certainly takes care of the spirit of the team, which in turn eliminates nine-tenths of the remaining possibilities of unrest. Thus, the possibility of violations of discipline is reduced to one chance in a hundred, which is a completely normal ratio, since the organizer always and very easily copes with this only chance.

If some employers have certain ideals, then this is not enough; These ideals must be transmitted to all workers and employees, and anyone who has studied mass psychology knows that this is very easy to do. But to expect the average worker to look at things from a broader point of view than that which is revealed to him from his workplace is absurd. If this workplace is untidy, dirty, disorderly, if the worker does not have the necessary amenities, then neither the most advanced machines, structures, nor, in general, all that mass of devoid equipment on which we pinned so many hopes in the past, will inspire the worker.

The automatic discipline that deserves to be included among the principles of productivity is nothing other than the subordination of all the other eleven principles and the strictest adherence to them, so that these principles in no case become twelve separate, unrelated rules.

The fifth principle is fair treatment of staff

Like all other principles of productivity, fair treatment of workers and employees must be normalized, it must be in harmony with all the other eleven principles, and must be the special subject of the work of a special, highly qualified staff group, enjoying the help and advice of a number of specialists: characterologists, hygienists, physiologists , psychologists, bacteriologists, safety experts, heating and lighting engineers, economists, salary specialists, accountants, lawyers. In a word, in this work, as in any other, it is necessary to use the entire treasury of relevant human knowledge. Supported by the correct organization of the enterprise, based on ideals and common sense, developing under the influence of the advice of competent specialists, simplifying its tasks by immediately eliminating the unsuitable human element, the principle of justice is carried out by prompt, accurate and complete accounting, by rationing operations, by accurate written instructions, through detailed schedules and in general everything that the twelve principles of productivity require from enterprises.

The sixth principle is fast, reliable, complete, accurate and permanent accounting

The purpose of accounting is to increase the number and intensity of warnings in order to give us information that we do not receive through external senses.

Accounting has as its goal the victory over time. It takes us back to the past and allows us to look into the future. He also conquers space, reducing, for example, an entire railway system into a simple graph curve, expanding on a drawing a thousandth of a millimeter to a whole foot, measuring the speed of movement of the most distant stars along the lines of a spectroscope.

Garington Emerson(1853-1931) was educated as an engineer in Germany, then worked in the USA. In the book “Twelve Principles of Productivity,” he formulated the principles of proper organization of both the work of an individual performer and the production process of an enterprise, examined the feasibility of human activity from the point of view of productivity, and proposed a method for achieving maximum management efficiency.

Emerson's main idea is this: true productivity always produces maximum results with minimum effort.

Hard work produces great results with abnormal efforts. Voltage and productivity are not only not the same thing, but they are actually opposites. Working hard means putting in maximum effort. Being productive means putting in minimal effort. The desire, known to many of us, to fulfill a plan at any cost is an attempt to solve an economic problem not through the rational organization of work, but through emergency work, command management methods, and coercion of workers. It is not production that should adapt to management, he believes Emerson, and management must serve production.

Let's list everything twelve principles of productivity, as they are formulated by the author.

1. Clearly defined production goals and clearly defined personnel tasks.

2. Common sense. This means not just everyday savvy, but the courage to face the truth: if there are difficulties in organizing production - it does not make a profit, the goods produced are not sold on the market - then there are specific reasons that depend primarily on the organizers and managers. It is necessary to find these causes and eliminate them boldly and decisively.

3. Competent consultation. It is advisable and profitable to involve specialists in this field - sociologists, psychologists, conflict experts, etc. - in the constant improvement of the management system.

4. Discipline. Real discipline requires, first of all, a clear distribution of functions: every manager and executive must clearly know his responsibilities; everyone should be aware of what he is responsible for, how and by whom he can be rewarded or punished.

5. Fair treatment of personnel, expressed in the idea “you work better, you live better.” Arbitrariness towards workers must be excluded.

6. Feedback. Allows you to quickly, reliably and fully account for and control the actions taken and the products released. Violations in feedback lead to failures in the control system.

7. Order and planning of work.

8. Norms and schedules. High results at work are associated not with an increase, but with a reduction in effort. Reducing effort is achieved through knowledge and consideration of all productivity reserves, the ability to implement them in practice and avoid unjustified labor costs, loss of time, materials, and energy.

9. Normalization of conditions. It is not necessary to adapt a person to a machine, but to create machines and technologies that would enable a person to produce more and better.

10. Rationing of operations. Labor must be rationed so that the worker is able to complete the task and earn good money.

11. Written standard instructions. They serve to free up the employee’s brain for initiative, invention, and creativity.

12. Reward for performance. It is advisable to introduce a remuneration system that takes into account both the time spent by the employee and his time, which manifests itself in the quality of his work.

Twelve principles of work organization, proposed Emerson, served as the basis for the rational organization of labor at an industrial enterprise and are currently effectively used in management practice.

Pochebut L. G., Chiker V. A., Organizational social psychology, St. Petersburg, “Rech”, 2002, p. 20-21.

Fragment kindly provided by the publishing house "Rech" www.rech.spb.ru.

Harrington Emerson (1853-1931) was the first to introduce the concepts of productivity or efficiency into management science.

Productivity (efficiency) means the most favorable relationship between total costs and economic results.

Emerson, who, like his predecessors, devoted his entire scientific life to finding answers to the questions: what are the reasons for the low efficiency of labor and organizational activities, and how to improve it? He achieved a lot in solving this issue, significantly enriching management science with the results of his research and experiments.
In 1908, Emerson wrote the book "Efficiency as the basis of production activities and wages". In this work, he compared the inefficiency of human actions and the effectiveness of the methods used by the nature around us, and concluded that only human inefficiency is the cause of human poverty. He believed that the problem of labor inefficiency can be solved in two ways:

Firstly, using specially developed methods, that would allow people to achieve the maximum results of which they are capable of solving problems or achieving their goals;
Secondly, using goal setting methods, requiring the maximum productivity of which the performer of the work is capable.

To evaluate work performance, Emerson proposed the use of standards (rather than tasks), meaning professional standards, or “pre-established sets of rules that are accepted by the majority in a given field of production.” He paid particular attention to the standardization of cost accounting, knowing from his own experience that this had great potential for increasing efficiency.

A summary of the research results and life experience was given in Emerson's second monograph "Twelve Principles of Effectiveness"(1912). Emerson modestly stated that he was not discovering anything new, since these principles had been operating for many millions of years in various forms of nature and life, that they were simple, understandable and elementary.

Harington Emerson's Twelve Principles of Productivity, as formulated by the author:

According to Emerson, inefficiency and waste in the organization of any work can only be eliminated when all 12 principles operate simultaneously. Maximum inefficiency can occur for one of two reasons: either these principles are unknown in a given enterprise, or they are known but not practiced. In any case, efficiency suffers. Therefore, if the principles do not apply, then effectiveness is practically unattainable.